Transcript of John Quigley interview

Ron: The views expressed on the following program do not necessarily reflect the views
of the management of KBLL radio or of any sponsors on KBLL radio.
(Music)
Ron: Well, just don’t sit there.
Rosetta: Well, Ron, I see you’ve ….Good Morning! You’re listening to Scooter and I’m
Rosetta and that was the end of my theme song and I think he was waiting for me to start.
It’s Friday and on Friday we do things differently around here. Right, Ron?
Ron: Right. Just whatever you say today. You’re the director.
Rosetta: He’s been working too hard.
Ron: I think so, yes. I think I need a vacation.
Rosetta: This is the day that the swallows come back to Capistrano, isn’t that what Paul
Harvey said?
Ron: That’s it.
Rosetta: And on March 15, that’s the day that the buzzards return to Buckley, Ohio?
Ron: Oh.
Rosetta: (Laughter) It’s true, they all return this March 15. When does Sam come home
to roost?
Ron: He never leaves, ol’ Sam, he’s too tired all the time.
Rosetta: We better get started Ron. We have several things going on today and we have
John Quigley coming down to talk about that great big wooden Indian standing there in
the middle of the Union Bank (laughter). Hi John, nice to have you back with me again
on Scooter.
John: Nice to be here.
Rosetta: John is the owner of Frontier Town which is probably nationally famous, well
not probably, it is. Internationally. Nationally certainly, internationally very probably.
2
Anyway, he is in town today and has been for the last two days, because a sampling of
your, your unique talent, one of your unique talents is standing down there in the lobby of
the Union Bank and that’s that great big Indian that you carved. And whatever prompted
a task or a challenge like that?
John: Well, I’ve made a few small carvings. I always thought I could do it, but found
out it took a lot more time, and was a lot harder than I thought in the first place.
Rosetta: Well, what gave you the inspiration, why did you want to do that?
John: Well, I guess you could say in the same answer for all of Frontier Town. I loved
the old west and been an Indian sympathizer all my life and I’ll never be a Charlie
Russell or anything like that, but my thoughts run somewhat similar.
Rosetta: I have a feeling John that you’re going to be in history just like Charlie Russell.
We’re going to remember you. Let’s talk about your Indian. He’s how big?
John: Well, he’s 9 foot tall, made of a tree over 300 years old. By the way, that’s about
the time the Mayflower got here with the Pilgrims.
Rosetta: Where did you find that?
John: Weighs between 300 and 400 pounds. Within 200-300 feet of the buildings at
Frontier Town.
Rosetta: Oh, really? This tree, you just went out there and…
John: Most people can’t see the trees for the forest.
Rosetta: (Laughter) Yes. Good saying. That’s right. You just went out there and
decided this was the tree that he should be carved from.
John: Well, I had to find a tree first of all that was large enough, and then have
appropriate limbs that would form the breach cloud and the braids depicting an Indian
brave standing guard or as a sentinel in a strong wind.
Rosetta: This is what, I’ve wondered about this. Now I saw him at Frontier Town last
summer when we were there and he was standing out there at the entrance to the door to
the building itself.
John: Yes. Well, I started him winter before last, and didn’t have time. But all in all
there’s four to five months work. I finished him here less than two weeks ago.
Rosetta: You know, I’ve seen people whittle and carve from a small block of something,
and know how that takes shape, but how do you get something like a 9 foot tall figure
that weighs, how much did you say he weighed?
3
John: Between 300 and 400 pounds.
Rosetta: How do you get started on something like that?
John: Well, just imagination I guess, I’ve always had a lot of that.
Rosetta: Yes, we all will certainly attest to that.
John: The simplest way to make one, my partner Ken Olson, who’s running dining room
and bar. Somebody asked him the same question; he says there’s nothing to it. All you
do is get a big tree, cut it down, bring it in to work on it, and just cut away everything that
doesn’t look like an Indian.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Well, that’s really simple, I know, but there’s no one else in the world who
could do anything like this. You’ve brought some pictures down and those who were up
at Frontier Town last summer certainly will remember him. When you said “standing in
the wind,” I wondered why you had his braid or his hair out to the side and also that fox
skin, or whatever it is, around his waist. Let’s describe your Indian. You do it.
John: Well, I’ve tried to depict an Indian standing as a sentinel listening for danger in the
wind.
Rosetta: Ah, his head is cocked like that.
John: He’s supposed to be listening for the snapping of a twig or some signal, which is
hard to hear in the wind. And I thought of many different names, but I couldn’t get it
down. It should have a title, not a name really. He isn’t Chief Rain in the Face, or
something of this kind. It’s something that would depict or say in a few words, danger in
the wind. Well “Danger in the Wind” would work fine for us Montanan’s, but somebody
from Florida or California, they think of cyclones or a storm coming, or something of this
type, which I’m not thinking of at all. Consequently, Mr. Gannon and the Union Bank
and Trust Company suggested that they put it on exhibit and have a contest and pick
some judges to decide on the most appropriate name, which we have done. And also
have offered first prize of $50 in Frontier Town coins, $10 second prize and $5 for third
prize.
Rosetta: So you have a contest going to name your Indian.
John: Yes.
Rosetta: All right. Now, how do you go about naming the Indian? Do you have an entry
blank, or what do they do?
4
John: Yes. If you go in Union Bank and Trust Company where you can see him on
exhibit, they have blanks there that you can fill out and put in the ballot box. The judging
will be done May 2, I believe.
Rosetta: Is he going to be there until then?
John: He’ll be there until the 26th.
Rosetta: Of April.
John: Of April.
Rosetta: And they can, when does the entries close?
John: I believe the entries close the 2nd, the judging will be done the 6th, I believe.
Rosetta: Okay, now.
John: That’s all up to the judges.
Rosetta: Who are the judges, I think I should know. Is Sam Gilully one of them?
John: Yes.
Rosetta: He’s the director of the Montana Historical Society.
John: Yes. Right. And Bob Morgan, curator of the Historical Society.
Rosetta: Yes.
John: Mrs. George Remington, and Judge Victor Fall.
Rosetta: So this is a very organized contest. What do you intend to do with your Indian?
I know, of course, everyone, there will be thousands and thousands who will see him up
there at Frontier Town, but now that you have done this, you just going to park him up
there where he can be out of the dangerous winds, or what?
John: Well, if you recall the buffalo that I had mounted on the little tractor that we had
in parades here in Helena and also all the parades on the Centennial trains to and from the
World’s Fair in New York and Calgary, we had him all over. I’m going to use the same
little tractor and mount this Indian and enter him in art exhibits and also parades
throughout the state and possibly even further, especially Calgary, we already have an
invitation to the Calgary Stampede.
5
Rosetta: Well, it’s a very unique kind of art work, as I’ve said before it’s very different,
but then of course all of Frontier Town is different. I have a couple of questions. When
does Frontier Town open?
John: Well, for 25 years we’ve opened the first of April and most people are confused
and believe we do not open until Mother’s Day.
Rosetta: I’ve always thought you opened on Mother’s Day.
John: No. Of course, that’s the opening for the dining room, and that’s when most of the
people figure we open. We really open the bar, and souvenir shop and all the first of
April.
Rosetta: Do you have any other plans? You’re always changing or doing something to
Frontier Town. Are you, do you have anything in the offing in the next year or two?
John: Well, we’ll have another exhibit room finished I believe within a few weeks,
especially for artwork and pictures and old time memorabilia. It’ll be an entirely new
room that no one has ever seen before.
Rosetta: So you will have something. When did you start carving? Your mastery of
building, I mean with the stone and this kind of thing, I think sometimes over-shadows
your actual talents with your hands. I mean I think what you’ve done with your back in
building that place sometimes over-shadows some of the real talent that you have in your
hands in carving. Have you always carved?
John: Well, very little. I have about six or seven pieces that I’d show and a few that I
wouldn’t.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Like every artist would.
John: Most people would grow old and whittle. I’ve been growing old whittling.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Oh. Well, then, it’s been a part of you all along.
John: Well, it’s never been anything I could make a living at, but, had I got started when
I was younger, why I think maybe I could have done something with it.
Rosetta: Well, look what you’ve done. Imagine that, Ron, I think had I started younger I
think I could have done something and you’re probably one of the most unique men in
the world, and then to sit here and say something like that. (Laughter) I can’t believe it.
And he took a bow on that and with that I think I’ll just say, thank you so much John
6
Quigley, and you are, you’re just a fabulous individual and we’re lucky to have you here
in this vicinity. And keep up, keep doing things like this, keep surprising Helena and
keep surprising the rest of Montana.
Ron: We have a question.
Rosetta: Yes.
Ron: What tribe was your Indian that you carved from, or is that anything that…?
John: Well, I favored the Blackfoot, but I hope any Indian would see his ancestors there.
Ron: Good answer.
Rosetta: So again, we will mention that there is a contest going on to name the Indian
and you said first prize is?
John: $50 in Frontier Town coins.
Rosetta: $50 in Frontier Town coins.
John: Which is good in trade in the souvenir shop, the bar and dining room. At any time.
Rosetta: And you have a second prize?
John: $10 in the coins and third, $5.
Rosetta: And the honor of having named the Indian.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Thanks, John Quigley, for coming down and I hope everyone will stop down at
the Union Bank and take a look at this big guy. He’s something to see.
John: Well thanks very much.
Rosetta: Alright.
(After John leaves)
Rosetta: He says so much more when he knows the microphone is off, than when he
knows the microphone is on. And he has so many good ideas that I wish I could get him
to share with you over the airwaves. And hopefully someday I can share them as time
goes on, with you. He would like, for example, to see a program someday here, where
we would interview the tribes, members of the various tribes, Indian Chief. He’s a great
Indian sympathizer. He continually re-emphasizes that. And he would like to bring his
7
big Indian down here to KBLL he told me and have him on television, and wouldn’t it be
something if we could have an Indian special with representatives from various Indian
tribes around Montana and have John’s big Indian standing down here. I’m going to
have to talk to Lazarus Ander, our program director. I would be happy to work on a
program like that. I think it would be fantastic. I really do. Maybe we will, there must
be other, now that we’re changing and the Indians aren’t always the bad guys and the
cowboys are the good guys, and we’re beginning to equalize a little here, and see the
other side.
Rosetta: Someone has played with my clock and I’m going to have to fix it. (Laughter)
But anyway, Monday, on Scooter we’re going to have someone with us from the school
system and we’re going to talk about dress codes of the school and that should be
interesting. I’m sure the phone will be ringing off the hook on Monday with people and
their ideas on this. And in the meantime, it is Friday and we hope you have a good
weekend. And I’m sorry we ran out of time. It never happens here, but it did today for
the very first time.
Ron: The first time.
Rosetta: Goodbye.
Ron: Bye, Rosetta. News coming up in about one minute.

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Interviewed by Rosetta Kamlowsky on March 19, 1971 for the Scooter radio show on KBLL radio. The topic of the interview was a nine foot tall wood carving on an Indian carved by Quigley.

Creator

Quigley, John

Type

Text

Language

eng

Date Original

March 19, 1971

Subject

Interviewing on radio--Montana; Indian wood-carving; Frontier Town (Mont.)

Rights Management

Made available for scholarly, research and educational purposes only.

Contributors

Kamlowsky, Rosetta; KBLL Radio

Contributing Institution

Montana Historical Society Research Center

Geographic Coverage

Montana

Digital Collection

Kamlowsky (Rosetta) Radio Interviews

Format

application/pdf

Date Digital

2008

Resource Identifier

Transcript Disc_010

Relation

From the Rosetta Kamlowsky interviews collection

Transcript

Ron: The views expressed on the following program do not necessarily reflect the views
of the management of KBLL radio or of any sponsors on KBLL radio.
(Music)
Ron: Well, just don’t sit there.
Rosetta: Well, Ron, I see you’ve ….Good Morning! You’re listening to Scooter and I’m
Rosetta and that was the end of my theme song and I think he was waiting for me to start.
It’s Friday and on Friday we do things differently around here. Right, Ron?
Ron: Right. Just whatever you say today. You’re the director.
Rosetta: He’s been working too hard.
Ron: I think so, yes. I think I need a vacation.
Rosetta: This is the day that the swallows come back to Capistrano, isn’t that what Paul
Harvey said?
Ron: That’s it.
Rosetta: And on March 15, that’s the day that the buzzards return to Buckley, Ohio?
Ron: Oh.
Rosetta: (Laughter) It’s true, they all return this March 15. When does Sam come home
to roost?
Ron: He never leaves, ol’ Sam, he’s too tired all the time.
Rosetta: We better get started Ron. We have several things going on today and we have
John Quigley coming down to talk about that great big wooden Indian standing there in
the middle of the Union Bank (laughter). Hi John, nice to have you back with me again
on Scooter.
John: Nice to be here.
Rosetta: John is the owner of Frontier Town which is probably nationally famous, well
not probably, it is. Internationally. Nationally certainly, internationally very probably.
2
Anyway, he is in town today and has been for the last two days, because a sampling of
your, your unique talent, one of your unique talents is standing down there in the lobby of
the Union Bank and that’s that great big Indian that you carved. And whatever prompted
a task or a challenge like that?
John: Well, I’ve made a few small carvings. I always thought I could do it, but found
out it took a lot more time, and was a lot harder than I thought in the first place.
Rosetta: Well, what gave you the inspiration, why did you want to do that?
John: Well, I guess you could say in the same answer for all of Frontier Town. I loved
the old west and been an Indian sympathizer all my life and I’ll never be a Charlie
Russell or anything like that, but my thoughts run somewhat similar.
Rosetta: I have a feeling John that you’re going to be in history just like Charlie Russell.
We’re going to remember you. Let’s talk about your Indian. He’s how big?
John: Well, he’s 9 foot tall, made of a tree over 300 years old. By the way, that’s about
the time the Mayflower got here with the Pilgrims.
Rosetta: Where did you find that?
John: Weighs between 300 and 400 pounds. Within 200-300 feet of the buildings at
Frontier Town.
Rosetta: Oh, really? This tree, you just went out there and…
John: Most people can’t see the trees for the forest.
Rosetta: (Laughter) Yes. Good saying. That’s right. You just went out there and
decided this was the tree that he should be carved from.
John: Well, I had to find a tree first of all that was large enough, and then have
appropriate limbs that would form the breach cloud and the braids depicting an Indian
brave standing guard or as a sentinel in a strong wind.
Rosetta: This is what, I’ve wondered about this. Now I saw him at Frontier Town last
summer when we were there and he was standing out there at the entrance to the door to
the building itself.
John: Yes. Well, I started him winter before last, and didn’t have time. But all in all
there’s four to five months work. I finished him here less than two weeks ago.
Rosetta: You know, I’ve seen people whittle and carve from a small block of something,
and know how that takes shape, but how do you get something like a 9 foot tall figure
that weighs, how much did you say he weighed?
3
John: Between 300 and 400 pounds.
Rosetta: How do you get started on something like that?
John: Well, just imagination I guess, I’ve always had a lot of that.
Rosetta: Yes, we all will certainly attest to that.
John: The simplest way to make one, my partner Ken Olson, who’s running dining room
and bar. Somebody asked him the same question; he says there’s nothing to it. All you
do is get a big tree, cut it down, bring it in to work on it, and just cut away everything that
doesn’t look like an Indian.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Well, that’s really simple, I know, but there’s no one else in the world who
could do anything like this. You’ve brought some pictures down and those who were up
at Frontier Town last summer certainly will remember him. When you said “standing in
the wind,” I wondered why you had his braid or his hair out to the side and also that fox
skin, or whatever it is, around his waist. Let’s describe your Indian. You do it.
John: Well, I’ve tried to depict an Indian standing as a sentinel listening for danger in the
wind.
Rosetta: Ah, his head is cocked like that.
John: He’s supposed to be listening for the snapping of a twig or some signal, which is
hard to hear in the wind. And I thought of many different names, but I couldn’t get it
down. It should have a title, not a name really. He isn’t Chief Rain in the Face, or
something of this kind. It’s something that would depict or say in a few words, danger in
the wind. Well “Danger in the Wind” would work fine for us Montanan’s, but somebody
from Florida or California, they think of cyclones or a storm coming, or something of this
type, which I’m not thinking of at all. Consequently, Mr. Gannon and the Union Bank
and Trust Company suggested that they put it on exhibit and have a contest and pick
some judges to decide on the most appropriate name, which we have done. And also
have offered first prize of $50 in Frontier Town coins, $10 second prize and $5 for third
prize.
Rosetta: So you have a contest going to name your Indian.
John: Yes.
Rosetta: All right. Now, how do you go about naming the Indian? Do you have an entry
blank, or what do they do?
4
John: Yes. If you go in Union Bank and Trust Company where you can see him on
exhibit, they have blanks there that you can fill out and put in the ballot box. The judging
will be done May 2, I believe.
Rosetta: Is he going to be there until then?
John: He’ll be there until the 26th.
Rosetta: Of April.
John: Of April.
Rosetta: And they can, when does the entries close?
John: I believe the entries close the 2nd, the judging will be done the 6th, I believe.
Rosetta: Okay, now.
John: That’s all up to the judges.
Rosetta: Who are the judges, I think I should know. Is Sam Gilully one of them?
John: Yes.
Rosetta: He’s the director of the Montana Historical Society.
John: Yes. Right. And Bob Morgan, curator of the Historical Society.
Rosetta: Yes.
John: Mrs. George Remington, and Judge Victor Fall.
Rosetta: So this is a very organized contest. What do you intend to do with your Indian?
I know, of course, everyone, there will be thousands and thousands who will see him up
there at Frontier Town, but now that you have done this, you just going to park him up
there where he can be out of the dangerous winds, or what?
John: Well, if you recall the buffalo that I had mounted on the little tractor that we had
in parades here in Helena and also all the parades on the Centennial trains to and from the
World’s Fair in New York and Calgary, we had him all over. I’m going to use the same
little tractor and mount this Indian and enter him in art exhibits and also parades
throughout the state and possibly even further, especially Calgary, we already have an
invitation to the Calgary Stampede.
5
Rosetta: Well, it’s a very unique kind of art work, as I’ve said before it’s very different,
but then of course all of Frontier Town is different. I have a couple of questions. When
does Frontier Town open?
John: Well, for 25 years we’ve opened the first of April and most people are confused
and believe we do not open until Mother’s Day.
Rosetta: I’ve always thought you opened on Mother’s Day.
John: No. Of course, that’s the opening for the dining room, and that’s when most of the
people figure we open. We really open the bar, and souvenir shop and all the first of
April.
Rosetta: Do you have any other plans? You’re always changing or doing something to
Frontier Town. Are you, do you have anything in the offing in the next year or two?
John: Well, we’ll have another exhibit room finished I believe within a few weeks,
especially for artwork and pictures and old time memorabilia. It’ll be an entirely new
room that no one has ever seen before.
Rosetta: So you will have something. When did you start carving? Your mastery of
building, I mean with the stone and this kind of thing, I think sometimes over-shadows
your actual talents with your hands. I mean I think what you’ve done with your back in
building that place sometimes over-shadows some of the real talent that you have in your
hands in carving. Have you always carved?
John: Well, very little. I have about six or seven pieces that I’d show and a few that I
wouldn’t.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Like every artist would.
John: Most people would grow old and whittle. I’ve been growing old whittling.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Oh. Well, then, it’s been a part of you all along.
John: Well, it’s never been anything I could make a living at, but, had I got started when
I was younger, why I think maybe I could have done something with it.
Rosetta: Well, look what you’ve done. Imagine that, Ron, I think had I started younger I
think I could have done something and you’re probably one of the most unique men in
the world, and then to sit here and say something like that. (Laughter) I can’t believe it.
And he took a bow on that and with that I think I’ll just say, thank you so much John
6
Quigley, and you are, you’re just a fabulous individual and we’re lucky to have you here
in this vicinity. And keep up, keep doing things like this, keep surprising Helena and
keep surprising the rest of Montana.
Ron: We have a question.
Rosetta: Yes.
Ron: What tribe was your Indian that you carved from, or is that anything that…?
John: Well, I favored the Blackfoot, but I hope any Indian would see his ancestors there.
Ron: Good answer.
Rosetta: So again, we will mention that there is a contest going on to name the Indian
and you said first prize is?
John: $50 in Frontier Town coins.
Rosetta: $50 in Frontier Town coins.
John: Which is good in trade in the souvenir shop, the bar and dining room. At any time.
Rosetta: And you have a second prize?
John: $10 in the coins and third, $5.
Rosetta: And the honor of having named the Indian.
(Laughter)
Rosetta: Thanks, John Quigley, for coming down and I hope everyone will stop down at
the Union Bank and take a look at this big guy. He’s something to see.
John: Well thanks very much.
Rosetta: Alright.
(After John leaves)
Rosetta: He says so much more when he knows the microphone is off, than when he
knows the microphone is on. And he has so many good ideas that I wish I could get him
to share with you over the airwaves. And hopefully someday I can share them as time
goes on, with you. He would like, for example, to see a program someday here, where
we would interview the tribes, members of the various tribes, Indian Chief. He’s a great
Indian sympathizer. He continually re-emphasizes that. And he would like to bring his
7
big Indian down here to KBLL he told me and have him on television, and wouldn’t it be
something if we could have an Indian special with representatives from various Indian
tribes around Montana and have John’s big Indian standing down here. I’m going to
have to talk to Lazarus Ander, our program director. I would be happy to work on a
program like that. I think it would be fantastic. I really do. Maybe we will, there must
be other, now that we’re changing and the Indians aren’t always the bad guys and the
cowboys are the good guys, and we’re beginning to equalize a little here, and see the
other side.
Rosetta: Someone has played with my clock and I’m going to have to fix it. (Laughter)
But anyway, Monday, on Scooter we’re going to have someone with us from the school
system and we’re going to talk about dress codes of the school and that should be
interesting. I’m sure the phone will be ringing off the hook on Monday with people and
their ideas on this. And in the meantime, it is Friday and we hope you have a good
weekend. And I’m sorry we ran out of time. It never happens here, but it did today for
the very first time.
Ron: The first time.
Rosetta: Goodbye.
Ron: Bye, Rosetta. News coming up in about one minute.